Brutal Rolling Stone piece on Pres. Obama's handling of the BP spill

[Wandawilkerson]

June 8, 2010
Excerpt:

On May 27th, more than a month into the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, Barack Obama strode to the podium in the East Room of the White House. For weeks, the administration had been insisting that BP alone was to blame for the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf – and the ongoing failure to stop the massive leak. "They have the technical expertise to plug the hole," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had said only six days earlier. "It is their responsibility." The president, Gibbs added, lacked the authority to play anything more than a supervisory role – a curious line of argument from an administration that has reserved the right to assassinate American citizens abroad and has nationalized much of the auto industry. "If BP is not accomplishing the task, can you just federalize it?" a reporter asked. "No," Gibbs replied.

Now, however, the president was suddenly standing up to take command of the cleanup effort. "In case you were wondering who's responsible," Obama told the nation, "I take responsibility." Sounding chastened, he acknowledged that his administration had failed to adequately reform the Minerals Management Service, the scandal-ridden federal agency that for years had essentially allowed the oil industry to self-regulate. "There wasn't sufficient urgency," the president said. "Absolutely I take responsibility for that." He also admitted that he had been too credulous of the oil giants: "I was wrong in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios." He unveiled a presidential commission to investigate the disaster, discussed the resignation of the head of MMS, and extended a moratorium on new deepwater drilling. "The buck," he reiterated the next day on the sullied Louisiana coastline, "stops with me."

Read it all: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. Are the employees of Rolling Stone down at the Gulf cleaning up?

I expect not. These people are comfy in their offices drinking coffee while thousands of workers Coast Guard, NOAA etc are trying to stop the oil.

[Better Believe It]

2. Not anymore than the employees of other progressive publications. Should they all stop publishing

in order to help out in the gulf?

Will you be quiting your job, as you suggest all the employees of Rolling Stone should do, to help out?

Are you by any chance drinking a latte in the comfort of your home as you read this?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. I think we all should do our bit instead of spouting

[LeftyMom]

4. Journalists do their bit by doing journalism.

BTW, you're posting on a message board right now (as you would call it, "spouting") and presumably that means that you are not cleaning birds or scooping oily sand off of a beach. I'm not even slightly religious, but Matthew 7:5 applies to your situation so admirably that I must suggest you read it immediately.

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. I think her point, which you obviously missed, is that the people writing the hit pieces...

should perhaps climb down from their perches? She's not the one "spouting" attacks on the people who are actually working to fix the mess, Rolling Stone is.

[LeftyMom]

8. Rolling Stone is doing journalism, which is best done with a critical eye.

Attacking somebody is personal. Criticism is professional, and it's a vital part of improving performance.

[Wandawilkerson]

11. Can you say, in all honesty, that you read the article?

Honestly.

I'm the one who discovered it and I'm not even up to the middle of page 2, lol. I would wait a bit longer to declare it a hit piece. What I've read so far is enlightening...very good journalism with facts to support the opinions. for example, how only a tiny percentage of all deepwater wells have been included in the moratorium (less than 10%).

[hay rick]

77. I can't believe I read the whole thing...

but I did. From the article on the subject of the "moratorium"

"Even worse, the "moratorium" on drilling announced by the president does little to prevent future disasters. The ban halts exploratory drilling at only 33 deepwater operations, shutting down less than one percent of the total wells in the Gulf. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the Cabinet-level official appointed by Obama to rein in the oil industry, boasts that "the moratorium is not a moratorium that will affect production" – which continues at 5,106 wells in the Gulf, including 591 in deep water."

So the "moratorium" (parentheses mandatory) shut down less than 1% of all Gulf wells and about 6% of deepwater wells.

[saracat]

12. I notice you do not address any of the issues raised in this fine work. My guess is

you did not and will not read it.This is not a "hit piece". This is investigative journalisim at its best. There is no defense for the actions or lack of action that has been taken. Kudos to RS for being truth tellers.

[Ignis]

24. "the people writing hit pieces"

:eyes:

[Bluebear]

25. "Hit pieces" to tarhelldem: anything, ANYTHING critical of the administration

[Cant trust em]

32. THere are a few loaded words and scare quotes in there...

but for the most part its a tough critique.

[wordpix]

84. uh, SALAZAR is working to fix the mess? Maybe now he is, but he helped MAKE the mess

read the article, I'm only up to p. 2 but he's involved in this MMS scandal, big time

[Donnachaidh]

9. so when are YOU going down to NOLA? n/t

[Mimosa]

38. BP broke the ocean they should be made to pay...

BP needs oversight. They're liars.

[saracat]

10. "Spouting" ? Is that what investigative journalisms is to you?

This isn't a rant.This is an in depth investigation.This is what real reporting is all about.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

19. a review

much of the information has already been published in various sources over the last few weeks. My guess it intends to be a review? Pointing of fingers is not actually getting the oil stopped and cleaned up. BP, Halliburton and Transocean are responsible for the disaster. Thousands of volunteers are there trying to clean it up and more are needed:
http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/
http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog/2010/05/12/volunteer_info_for_gulf_oil_spill

[saracat]

33. And our government negligence bears NO responsibility? Wow.

Perhaps if our corrupt Interior and M+M didn't award contracts and exemptions(which they continue to do) we wouldn't have this problem.Perhaps if the EPA had worked on solutions at least for the last year we might have more ideas. We need to punish ALL those responsible and ensure that worse does not happen again.And congrats to RS for doing an expose, and holding feet to the fire. The fact that some of this is not "new" in no way negates the story. That is called research and this type of journalism will definitely educate and inspire. We need more than volunteers.We need inovation.

[mhatrw]

58. The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is responsible for responding to national disasters.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965?RS_show_page=5

Instead of seizing the reins, the Obama administration cast itself in a supporting role, insisting that BP was responsible for cleaning up the mess. "When you say the company is responsible and the government has oversight," a reporter asked Gibbs on May 3rd, "does that mean that the government is ultimately in charge of the cleanup?" Gibbs was blunt: "No," he insisted, "the responsible party is BP." In fact, the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan – the federal regulations that lay out the command-and-control responsibilities for cleaning up an oil spill – makes clear that an oil company like BP cannot be left in charge of such a serious disaster. The plan plainly states that the government must "direct all federal, state or private actions" to clean up a spill "where a discharge or threat of discharge poses a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States."

"The government is in a situation where it's required to be in charge," says William Funk, a professor of environmental and administrative law at Lewis and Clark College who previously worked as a staff attorney in the Justice Department. ...

The effect of leaving BP in charge of capping the well, says a scientist involved in the government side of the effort, has been "like a drunk driver getting into a car wreck and then helping the police with the accident investigation."

[Catherina]

18. No you don't

You think we should all bow down and adore pretending a turd is a rose.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

21. There are thousands of oil wells offshore

even with safety mechanisms in place they are potential disasters. Something needs to be done worldwide to wind down off shore drilling.
The same could be said about nuclear power stations.

[wordpix]

85. 5,106 of them in the Gulf & only 33 under the "moratorium" the La pols are crying about

read the article

[freddie mertz]

79. What are you doing in the gulf right now?

Honestly, let us know.

[saracat]

6. Silly comment? Is Obama personally personally cleaning up the oil?

[salguine]

13. Are you quite insane?

[Bluenorthwest]

14. Are you?

Are your dragging your ass to the Gulf, Rosa? I expect not. Where do you live? What do you do for a living that you dare slander good journalists?

[KansasVoter]

15. Are you???

[Bluebear]

23. What is your major malfunction? Do you want journalism to stop so they can "clean up"?

What are YOU doing?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

26. new stuff?

journalists have been on this since it started but they seem to be rehashing the same stuff. People can write about it all they want but it is not going to solve the problem.

[flyarm]

42. excuse me Rosa..I live on the Gulf..It is my back yard..you say to Quote you:

"journalists have been on this since it started but they seem to be rehashing the same stuff"

Yes Journalists have been on this since it started..but they have been kept from reporting what is really going on..by both BP and the US Coastguard and our federal government! They have been threatened , they have been kept far away from the gusher..they have been lied to by both BP and our Federal Government..they have tried to interview people directly involved, only to have their jobs threatned..and told to sit on stories or to STFU ..they have not been allowed to fly over the oil ..they have been frustrated by this administration, by Homeland security..they have received threats and no support to report what is really going on..

I was down training to clean the birds..only to be lied to, as were all the other volunteers in my county which was set up as a head quarters...


wtf do you know sitting in your ivory tower telling anyone anything , when obviously you know nothing about what has been going on, on any of the Gulf areas effected???????????

Many of the scientists in the states involved have been frustrated by this administration and BP oil..they have been lied to and kept far away..they have been given false information..and totally lied to!

It is day 52..52 days..of negligence..52 days of kabuki dancing ..

Come walk the beaches and see the dead birds I have documented..I dare you..and you will possibly stfu..and listen to others that do know what they are talking about!

52 days those of us on the Gulf were screaming for our government to do their damn job!

Understand this.. a shit load of the food supply for this nation comes from this Gulf, that is my back yard..

Did you breath the god awful stinking air We on the gulf have..of chemicals and putrid stink that burned ones eyes and throats and have you gotten the headaches??????????

It took 4 days for our local media to report the stink..thatin my area of the Gulf..300 miles away from the gusher.. extended from Tampa to Ft Meyers a 4 hour drive away..4 days before it was reported and thousands and thousands of people calling the media begging for answers..we still don't know what the fuck we were breathing and how toxic it was and how it could hurt our health both short term and long term!

I beg every journalist in this country to write..write it all..write every damn thing they hcan about these failures....and to tell the damn truth..too bad it took 52 days before we have finally seen truth..

How dare anyone try to stop the truth from seeing the light of day..I say anyone who would want to stop truth is a traitor to this country and to their fellow Americans, who are having to deal with this shit on a daily basis..people who have worked hard to protect this incredible ocean..people who have made a living through this incredible body of water..people who give a damn about the birds, the eco system,the marine life and food source..and the most pristine beaches this nation has! How dare you or anyone else try to stop truth from being reported on????????

Who the fuck has the right to stop truth ..other than a propagandist that has an agenda, that has nothing to do with protecting this nation and her people!

It is our government's responsibility to protect this nation and her people from harm..that has not been done..not by either party..this is not about party or partisianship..this is about saving our eco system and our nation and her waters! It has to do with truth..so this nation never has this kind of irresponsibility again to destroy our waters for future generations.

The damage being done today will be felt for hundreds of years..and generations in the future will hate us all for the irresponsibilie way we behaved..and what we allowed in our names!

There is much to be done..and our government has been derilict in it's duty..and if it takes a hard hitting article of truth to get their asses in gear..those of us on the gulf welcome real journalism with arms wide open!

If you don't like the truth..then don't read it..but do not suggest anyone else should be ignorant about the truth..or should stfu..because we won't..you don't like it?? ..tough! To bad it took our gulf being made into a shit pit of oil..for too many of us to give a rats ass!

Solving the problem is starting with the truth..and to date ...you and most of the USA away from the Gulf.. have been given a daily dose of horseshit!

May I suggest you watch Anderson Cooper on CNN..he is about the closest to reporting the truth the MSM has come..and even that is white washed alot!

This Rolling Stones article is the truth..sorry you hate truth so much!

Perhaps you should look into the back ground of all involved in our government..not just those you want to believe are responsibile..there is much blame to go around..in BOTH PARTIES..and there has been a major cover your ass going on to cover up the truth! Which has resulted in our Gulf being destroyed!

Please educate yourself before you tell others that Journalists shouldn't be doing their damn jobs!

lots of greased pockets in both parties!

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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Groups Challenge Continued Oil Operations in Gulf Excluded from New Moratorium


Since spill, feds have given 27 waivers to oil companies in gulf
Source: McClatchy

Since spill, feds have given 27 waivers to oil companies in gulf

By Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded April 20, the Obama administration has granted oil and gas companies at least 27 exemptions from doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The waivers were granted despite President Barack Obama's vow that his administration would launch a "relentless response effort" to stop the leak and prevent more damage to the gulf. One of them was dated Friday — the day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he was temporarily halting offshore drilling.

The exemptions, known as "categorical exclusions," were granted by the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, or MMS, and included waiving detailed environmental studies for a British Petroleum exploration plan to be conducted at a depth of more than 4,000 feet and an Anadarko Petroleum Corp. exploration plan at more 9,000 feet.

"Is there a moratorium on offshore drilling or not?" asked Peter Galvin, the conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity, the environmental group that discovered the administration's continued approval of the exemptions. "Possibly the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history has occurred, and nothing appears to have changed."

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/07/9376 ...




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.....remember Dashle who pushed Obama during our primaries..and was one of his top advisors...........working with Whitman..the lady who lied about the air quality at Ground zero in NY?? Can i tickle your memory..she lied and people died and keep dying!! And that is just one example..

Spill, Baby, Spill
By Michael Isikoff, Ian Yarett and Matthew Philips | NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated May 10, 2010

BP has been trying hard to burnish its public image in recent years after being hit with a pair of environmental disasters, including a fatal refinery explosion in Texas and a pipeline leak in Alaska. One major step was to announce, in 2007, that it had hired a high-powered advisory board that included former EPA director Christine Todd Whitman, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, and Leon Panetta, who were each paid $120,000 a year. (Panetta left when he became President Obama's CIA director.) Two years ago the oil giant's chief executive, Robert Malone, flew board members out to the Gulf of Mexico on a helicopter to demonstrate the safeguards surrounding BP's advanced drilling technology. "We got a sense they were really committed to ensuring they got it right," Whitman told NEWSWEEK.

Now BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, finds itself blamed for what could prove to be the worst oil spill in U.S. history. And only weeks after Obama announced an ambitious plan to open up more U.S. offshore waters to oil drilling, shunting aside environmental concerns from his own Democratic Party, his administration is facing a comeuppance from hell. "There was a lot of wishful thinking, I guess," says Villy Kourafalou, a scientist at the University of Miami's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "The new technologies were said to be so wonderful that we'd never have an oil spill again." Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who had sought to block the expanded drilling, says the oil and gas industry was pushing this idea hard. "They said, 'We'll never have a repeat of Santa Barbara,'?" referring to the 1969 rig explosion off the California coast. Both the Bush and Obama administrations "were buying the line that the technology was fine," Pallone adds.

BP pressed hard to make that point in D.C. Its PR efforts included payments of $16 million last year to a battery of Washington lobbyists, among them the firm of Tony Podesta, the brother of former Obama transition chief John Podesta. Last fall, after the U.S. Interior Department proposed tighter federal regulation of oil companies' environmental programs, David Rainey, BP's vice president for Gulf of Mexico exploration, told Congress that the proposal was unnecessary. "I think we need to remember," he said, that offshore drilling "has been going on for the last 50 years, and it has been going on in a way that is both safe and protective of the environment."

Read the full article at:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/237298

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and never forget this..we Floridans won't!!!


YouTube - Barack Obama on Offshore Oil Drilling ( to Florida voters while asking for their votes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8fkbEuCQss ...


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Obama: “Oil Rigs Today Generally Don’t Cause Spills”


Obama Repeats Katrina Oil Spill Myth To Defend Offshore Drilling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm8gLmuTvJ4 ... ...


By: David Dayen Thursday April 29, 2010 1:42 pm

snip:

What a difference 18 days makes. Here was Barack Obama, on April 2, before the BP oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, claiming that oil rigs are safe to justify his position on offshore drilling:

I don’t agree with the notion that we shouldn’t do anything. It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills. They are technologically very advanced. Even during Katrina, the spills didn’t come from the oil rigs, they came from the refineries onshore.

Not only does this quote look ridiculous in hindsight, it wasn’t true at the time, as Brad Johnson points out:

Obama’s claim that oil rigs did not cause any spills during Hurricane Katrina is simply false, as the Wonk Room reported in June, 2008, when Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and other conservatives made the same false claim:

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused 124 Offshore Spills For A Total Of 743,700 Gallons. 554,400 gallons were crude oil and condensate from platforms, rigs and pipelines, and 189,000 gallons were refined products from platforms and rigs.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused Six Offshore Spills Of 42,000 Gallons Or Greater. The largest of these was 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a “major spill.”

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/04/29/oba ... ... ’t-cause-spills/


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Government to Oil Plume Discovery Team: Shut Up

Posted by flyarm in General Discussion
Tue May 18th 2010, 02:38 PM
Government to Oil Plume Discovery Team: Shut Up | The Seminal

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/48816 ...

Government to Oil Plume Discovery Team: Shut Up
By: Jim White Tuesday May 18, 2010 6:06 am


The research vessel Pelican. (photo: Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium)

On Saturday, the New York Times brought the world’s attention to the discovery by a team of researchers on the the vessel Pelican that there are large underwater plumes of oil emanating from the Deepwater Horizon spill. Remarkably, the response of the government to the attention focused on this discovery has been to tell the researchers to stop granting interviews with the press. At the same time, the blog on which the researchers had been providing updates has also fallen silent since Saturday.

Pensacola television station WEAR filed a report (video at the link) on the oil plume and broke the news about the scientists being muzzled by the government:

Over the weekend, a research crew from the University of Southern Mississippi found evidence that there are 3 to 5 plumes… About 5 miles wide, 10 miles long and 3 hundred feet in depth.

But after giving that information to the press, the lead researcher now says he has been asked by the federal government… Which funds his research… To quit giving interviews until further testing is done.

What an interesting change of course for the government. Even the government’s website on the Deepwater Horizon response had been touting the mission of the Pelican as recently as May 6:

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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu... ...

Thanks to Chill_ Wind for posting.............

Wackenhut in the Gulf guarding BP & US 'Command ' Center - (The Nation, Jeremy Scahill, 5/29)

Edited on Sat May-29-10 09:54 PM by chill_wind


BP and US Government 'Command Center' Guarded by Company From Afghan Embassy Hazing Scandal
Jeremy Scahill

I just got off the phone with my friends Naomi Klein, author of "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," and her husband Avi Lewis, host of al Jazeera English's popular program Fault Lines. They are traveling around the devastated US Gulf reporting on the horrific disaster caused by BP's massive oil spill. They described to me a run in that they just had with the private security company Wackenhut, which apparently has been hired to do the perimeter security for the "Deepwater Horizon Unified Command." The "Unified Command" is run jointly by BP and several US government agencies including the US Coast Guard, the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security.



Wackenhut, of course, is the notorious private security company that operates in the US and around the globe. It recently became part of the huge British mercenary network G4S. Most recently, Wackenhut gained global infamy for the conduct of guards from its subsidiary Armor Group after it was revealed by whistleblowers that the company created a "Lord of the Flies environment" at the embassy "in which guards and supervisors are 'peeing on people, eating potato chips out of cracks, vodka shots out of cracks... brawls, threats and intimidation from those leaders participating in this activity." According to the Project on Government Oversight, "Multiple guards say this deviant hazing has created a climate of fear and coercion, with those who declined to participate often ridiculed, humiliated, demoted, or even fired. The result is an environment that is dangerous and volatile. Some guards have reported barricading themselves in their rooms for fear that those carrying out the hazing will harm them physically."

In other words, Wackenhut is the perfect choice to "guard" the joint BP-US government-US military operation in the Gulf.

Lewis told me that for two weeks his crew has attempted to interview officials from the Unified Command's Joint Information Center. "We had been shut down or dodged for 2 weeks of official requests," he said. Finally, Lewis and Klein, who is on assignment for The Guardian, decided to go to the information center in person "to try to nail something down."




the rest: http://www.thenation.com/blog/bp-and-us-go... ...

" It is completely sci-fi. It's a corporate state." -- from the article
Klein, who spent extensive time in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina documenting the widespread disaster profiteering and privatization that endures to this day said the fact that Wackenhut is guarding a joint operation of the US government and BP is not surprising given what is happening in the Gulf right now. "The whole Gulf Coast is a corporate oil state," she told me. "It's like BP broke it, so now they own the entire Gulf Coast." She added: "We might accept the premise that BP is best positionioned to know how to fix the blow up at 5,000 feet, but that also seems to mean they think they should control media access and the entire clean up of a massive national emergency. BP is in charge of everything. We were on the water in open seas the day before the Wackenhut incident and a boat pulls up next to us and asked if we worked for BP and we said, "No," and they said, 'You can't be here.'" It is completely sci-fi. It's a corporate state."




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**Oh and the report that BP gave to our government ( you know the people responsible for making sure our coastlines and waters are not destroyed for hundreds of years??) about their response in case of an accident?? That went through our government ..was so bogus it talked about Walrus's and seals and animals that do not excist in the Gulf of Mexico..in fact the guy who wrote it died * 4 years * before the report was submitted to our government agencies responsible for giving leases out for drilling!

[flyarm]

48. BP'S BIG MESS/BP expected to declare bankruptcy soon

BP'S BIG MESS
BP expected to declare bankruptcy soon
"I think the government should ask BP to leave the United States and turn its
operation over to the military. They have about a month before they declare Chapter 11."
>> BP's stock in free fall

http://hinessight.com/

[cwydro]

60. Thank you flyarm.

I live in the Keys and we haven't been hit with it yet. I can't imagine we will escape it.

What is happening in Louisiana and now Alabama is sickening, horrifying, tragic and CRIMINAL.

Cannot believe the BP apologists on this board. People who have their heads so far up their rear ends, they have no clue what is really happening.

[flyarm]

62. They don't give a shit..but one thing I can assure everyone here..they will also pay the consequence

of this gushing oil when they get rain filled with oil in it! Because it will go vast and wide in this country..and should we have a hurricane in the Gulf any time soon..this entire nation will pay the consequences of this ! Big fucking time!

[cwydro]

90. Yup.

My fave was the other night, some dimwit sacrcastically asking if "your life has been in any way changed by this..."

Some people just have their heads stuck firmly in the sand, or somewhere.

[Bluebear]

69. 'Who the fuck has the right to stop truth ..other than a propagandist that has an agenda'

:crickets:

[flyarm]

50. hey Rosa..you might want to read this............

as posted on DU ..thank you .....Robbien

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Jane Lubchenko, administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric: Administration

But rather than applying such skepticism to BP's math, the Obama administration has instead attacked scientists who released independent estimates of the spill. When one scientist funded by NOAA released a figure much higher than the government's estimate, he found himself being pressured to retract it by officials at the agency. "Are you sure you want to keep saying this?" they badgered him. Lubchenko, the head of NOAA, even denounced as "misleading" and "premature" reports that scientists aboard the research vessel Pelican had discovered a massive subsea oil plume. Speaking to PBS, she offered a bizarre denial of the obvious. "It's clear that there is something at depth," she said, "but we don't even know that it's oil yet." Scientists were stunned that NOAA, an agency widely respected for its scientific integrity, appeared to have been co-opted by the White House spin machine. "NOAA has actively pushed back on every fact that has ever come out," says one ocean scientist who works with the agency. "They're denying until the facts are so overwhelming, they finally come out and issue an admittance."


http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/201 ...

[flyarm]

51. and this little tid bit of cover up!

Efforts in Gulf to Limit Flow of Spill News Source: New York Times

When the operators of Southern Seaplane in Belle Chasse, La., called the local Coast Guard-Federal Aviation Administration command center for permission to fly over restricted airspace in Gulf of Mexico, they made what they thought was a simple and routine request.

A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied.

“We were questioned extensively. Who was on the aircraft? Who did they work for?” recalled Rhonda Panepinto, who owns Southern Seaplane with her husband, Lyle. “The minute we mentioned media, the answer was: ‘Not allowed.’ ”

Journalists struggling to document the impact of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and government officials.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/us/politicsemail/10ac...

[flyarm]

61. Hey Rosa..can you tell me when the Gulf of Mexico got Sea Lions and Walrus's?

because in the Spill Plan BP submitted to our government legislators ..they claimed they had a SPILL plan for the Gulf of Mexico ..that included Sea Lions and Walrus's..not only that..the guy who wrote their plan died 4 years before their plan for the Gulf of Mexico was submitted to our congress.

PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS..Just a FYI..there are no Walrus's or Sea Lions in the Gulf of Mexico..so can you tell us all Who the fuck read this report and allowed this piece of shit to be submitted for their Spill Plan???????????

Oh and PSSSSSSSSSSSSS again..BP had 760 citations before this spill plan was submitted..ya think anyone would have taken the time to protect the American people's water ways and eco system and food source by reading the damn report by a corporate who had 760 citations against them?????????????

[hay rick]

78. March, 2009.

From the article:

"...a new policy instituted under Bush scrapped environmental analysis and fast-tracked permits. Declaring that oil companies themselves were "in the best position to determine the environmental effects" of drilling, the new rules pre-qualified deep-sea drillers to receive a "categorical exclusion" – an exemption from environmental review that was originally intended to prevent minor projects, like outhouses on hiking trails, from being tied up in red tape. "There's no analytical component to a cat-ex," says a former MMS scientist. "You have technicians, not scientists, that are simply checking boxes to make sure all the T's are crossed. They just cut and paste from previous approvals."

Nowhere was the absurdity of the policy more evident than in the application that BP submitted for its Deepwater Horizon well only two months after Obama took office. BP claims that a spill is "unlikely" and states that it anticipates "no adverse impacts" to endangered wildlife or fisheries. Should a spill occur, it says, "no significant adverse impacts are expected" for the region's beaches, wetlands and coastal nesting birds. The company, noting that such elements are "not required" as part of the application, contains no scenario for a potential blowout, and no site-specific plan to respond to a spill. Instead, it cites an Oil Spill Response Plan that it had prepared for the entire Gulf region. Among the sensitive species BP anticipates protecting in the semitropical Gulf? "Walruses" and other cold-water mammals, including sea otters and sea lions. The mistake appears to be the result of a sloppy cut-and-paste job from BP's drilling plans for the Arctic. Even worse: Among the "primary equipment providers" for "rapid deployment of spill response resources," BP inexplicably provides the Web address of a Japanese home-shopping network..."

I can understand that Obama couldn't change the culture at MMS in just two months. Unfortunately, over a year later he still hadn't made a serious attempt to reform the agency. Until Deepwater Horizon, his administration was content to passively go along with the industry, leaving many of the Bush era rules and people in place.

[freddie mertz]

80. What are you doing in the gulf right now?

Because according to your own expressed opinion, no one who is not directly involved seems to have a right to an opinion, or even to ask a question, regarding the most significant ecological disaster in our history.

So tell us, please.

[HEyHEY]

28. No, they're in their offices digging up how your prez fucked it up. That's THEIR job

Now, if only he would do his.

[Lerkfish]

44. are you?

it appears its not a prerequisite for saying something on the issue.

[dorkulon]

45. What an asinine question. /nt

[fascisthunter]

52. does your point make any difference?

or are you trying to distract us from the obvious content?

[Lucian]

53. Are you down in the Gulf helping clean up the oil?

I'm guessing no.

[mhatrw]

56. Better Excerpts

http://www.rollingstone.com/po...ws/17390/111965

Even after the president's press conference, Rolling Stone has learned, the administration knew the spill could be far worse than its "best estimate" acknowledged. That same day, the president's Flow Rate Technical Group – a team of scientists charged with establishing the gusher's output – announced a new estimate of 12,000 to 25,000 barrels, based on calculations from video of the plume. In fact, according to interviews with team members and scientists familiar with its work, that figure represents the plume group's minimum estimate. The upper range was not included in their report because scientists analyzing the flow were unable to reach a consensus on how bad it could be. "The upper bound from the plume group, if it had come out, is very high," says Timothy Crone, a marine geophysicist at Columbia University who has consulted with the government's team. "That's why they had resistance internally. We're talking 100,000 barrels a day." ...

Instead of seizing the reins, the Obama administration cast itself in a supporting role, insisting that BP was responsible for cleaning up the mess. "When you say the company is responsible and the government has oversight," a reporter asked Gibbs on May 3rd, "does that mean that the government is ultimately in charge of the cleanup?" Gibbs was blunt: "No," he insisted, "the responsible party is BP." In fact, the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan – the federal regulations that lay out the command-and-control responsibilities for cleaning up an oil spill – makes clear that an oil company like BP cannot be left in charge of such a serious disaster. The plan plainly states that the government must "direct all federal, state or private actions" to clean up a spill "where a discharge or threat of discharge poses a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States."

"The government is in a situation where it's required to be in charge," says William Funk, a professor of environmental and administrative law at Lewis and Clark College who previously worked as a staff attorney in the Justice Department. ...

That may help explain why the administration has gone to unusual lengths to contain the spill's political fallout. On May 14th, two days after the first video of the gusher was released, the government allowed BP to apply a toxic dispersant that is banned in England at the source of the leak – an unprecedented practice in the deep ocean. "The effort should be in recovering the oil, not making it more difficult to recover by dispersing it," says Sylvia Earle, a famed oceanographer and former NOAA chief scientist who helped the agency confront the world's worst-ever oil spill in the Persian Gulf after the first Iraq War. The chemical assault appeared geared, she says, "to improving the appearance of the problem rather than solving the problem."

[Capitalocracy]

70. Worst excuse ever.

They're doing a lot more toward cleaning up this mess by reporting on it than they could with a bag and a shovel. Obama's response leaves much to be desired, no matter how in love with him you are. If the shoe fits, throw it. I'm sorry, but if Obama's going to keep acting this way, you're going to have to thicken your skin to hearing people criticize him. I suggest you join us and make it constructive.

BP STANDS FOR BALLOT POISON

Pledge not to vote for any candidates receiving campaign donations from BP in 2010.

Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/bp2010/petition.html



Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=113423272036102

Twitter: @bpballotpoison

[liberation]

71. By the same metric, why aren't you down there dish detergent in hand?

Arbitrary standards are awesome when you don't even have to pretend to abide by them yourself. No?

[wordpix]

83. p.1, moratorium is only for 33/5,106 wells; p. 2, FUMING over Salazar - this guy has to GO

:grr: :puke: :banghead: :wtf: "Third Bush term" indeed :grr:

[JDPriestly]

89. We here in California appreciate the Rolling Stone's reporting on this

spill. An invasion of Californians into Louisiana and Alabama to see what is going on would be counterproductive. But we need to know because we have a very long coast. So far we don't have as much drilling as Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. But there have been lots of suggestions that we permit drilling, and the revenue for our state is tempting.

Thanks to articles like this, we here in California are likely to continue to do our best to make sure that our beautiful Pacific ocean remains a peaceful haven for whales, the beautiful water birds and other wonders of nature. Let's build more rail, fund more public transportation, switch to solar and wind and tidal energy and cut back on the amount of oil we use.

[earth mom]

94. This is NOT about the clean up. It's about Obama allowing BP to continue their half assed attempts

at shutting down the gusher.

Hell, it's obvious to school kids that BP is as incompetent as hell!!!

So why doesn't Obama just admit it and take over control?

EVERYONE in this country and planet is asking the same damn thing!

Except you and a few of the "faithful". :puke:


So when are you going down to the gulf to help clean up?

Do you really think the clean up will do much good when the damn volcano is still gushing like crazy?! :eyes:

[saracat]

7. Devastating piece.It confirms many of our fears. RS should get a Pulitzer for this!

[laughingliberal]

16. K & R nt

[Catherina]

17. Depressing truth. I can't read the whole thing tonight.

There's been enough bad news today to last me a month. Bookmarked to read the other 7 pages tomorrow. Rec'd

"Even worse, the "moratorium" on drilling announced by the president does little to prevent future disasters. The ban halts exploratory drilling at only 33 deepwater operations, shutting down less than one percent of the total wells in the Gulf."

[sam kane]

20. A Music magazine offers better political journalism than the NYTimes.

A Comedy show does better journalism than the news networks.

Du is a website far more informative than the AP.

I am so grateful for these few places of sanity left in this corporate world.

[CoffeeCat]

22. Obama's big mistake..

...was that he believed the oil companies, when they said they had it handled. BP
told Obama (and the rest of the world) that they would fix the leak. We were all
led to believe this.

BP also hid the horrific extent of the leak. We couldn't even see the leak until
our government demanded those images. Then, we got this fuzzy, broken-up, slow-motion
image that was frightening--but a sanitized version of reality. We only recently
got the HD images and they're ghastly.

BP lied for a long time. They also used our Coast Guard to threaten reporters with
arrest, if they took pictures of the oil-soaked beach. I'd still like to know, on
what authority, BP used our Coast Guard as their own personal police. It wasn't
Obama who green lighted that. Who did?

The answer lies within our government--that is owned and controlled by these
corporations. By now, Obama is well aware of their power and probably adjusted
to it--which is evidenced in his willingness to believe BP and allow them to take
the lead.

BP should not have been able to placate the President of the United States, lie
to him, cover up and screw around. But they did. That's what happens when a
government is engulfed by greedy, corporate weasels.

I think Obama is in a nearly impossible situation. Fascism all ready exists. He's
trying to work within the system to change it, while being stifled by it. Now
that BP has made a fool out of Obama, he's taking charge.

I'm behind Obama, as we move forward, and I hope he's learned that these bastards
are not his friends, and going along with them offers nothing positive.

[Cant trust em]

27. wrong place.

[flamingdem]

35. +1000

[Mimosa]

36. Good post, CoffeeCat...

But the machine might be too big for Obama. Right now we can all see he is not in charge. BP is doing what they want because they have the money.

[caledesi]

39. Well said! nt

[Laelth]

46. I question Obama's judgment for trusting them in the first place.

If he had any liberal instincts of his own or any liberal advisers, he would have known better. Indeed, he should have known better.

He's still better than McCain. The question is, how much better?

:dem:

-Laelth

[liberation]

73. Your post is like an ode to logical dissonance

"The answer lies within our government--that is owned and controlled by these
corporations. By now, Obama is well aware of their power and probably adjusted
to it--which is evidenced in his willingness to believe BP and allow them to take
the lead."

Honestly, I am not sure if you were trying to be sarcastic, funny, or facetious. But good grief if that paragraph alone hasn't the highest density of doublethink I have seen recently.


LOL

[Cant trust em]

29. This article is is good in that it describes how exactly the shit grew so high that it hit the fan.

It could have been great if it were published a year ago so that it could have created the kind of public outcry to have prevented the shit from getting quite so high in the first place.

[Cant trust em]

30. Can we just fire Ken Salazar already? nt

[Amonester]

31. But, but, but.... he's an Elite... nt

[Mimosa]

34. BP is in charge. They are not paying claims.

When the president makes BP pay claims and later makes them pay to restore the wetlands I'll feel good about what he's doing. So far things aren't looking good.

[flamingdem]

37. The Ongoing Administration-Wide Response to the Deepwater BP Oil Spill - READ THIS !!

The Ongoing Administration-Wide Response to the Deepwater BP Oil Spill
Prepared by the Joint Information Center
UPDATED June 9, 2010 7 PM

In the Past 24 Hours

Admiral Allen Meets with BP Claims Officials; Asserts Oversight of Claims Process
At the President’s direction, Admiral Thad Allen today met with top BP claims officials to assert the administration's oversight of BP's claims process in order to ensure that every legitimate claim is honored and paid in an efficient manner. He expressed the American people’s urgent need for additional transparency into BP's claims process, including how the process works, and how quickly claims are being processed for both individuals and businesses impacted by the oil spill. Additional meetings will be held in each of the four impacted states from June 11-13.

Today’s meeting followed a letter (pdf) sent today from Admiral Allen to BP CEO Tony Hayward directing the company to provide the National Incident Command and appropriate representatives of the affected Gulf Coast states with more detailed information about the full range of activities—from acceptance to processing to payment—BP is undertaking to meet its obligations as a responsible party in this disaster.

The administration will continue to hold the responsible parties accountable for repairing the damage, and repaying Americans who’ve suffered a financial loss as a result of the BP oil spill. To date, BP reports that 41,958 claims have been opened, from which more than $52.9 million have been disbursed. No claims have been denied to date. There are 533 claims adjusters on the ground. To file a claim, visit www.bp.com/claims or call BP’s helpline at 1-800-440-0858. Those who have already pursued the BP claims process and are not satisfied with BP’s resolution can call the Coast Guard at [phone].

Admiral Allen Provides Operational Update of BP Oil Spill Response
National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen provided a briefing to inform the American public and answer questions on the progress of the administration-wide response to the BP oil spill. A transcript is available here.

Rear Admiral Watson Instructs BP to Execute Oil Containment Contingency Plans
Federal On-Scene Coordinator Rear Admiral James A. Watson has sent a letter to BP instructing them to develop plans—within 72 hours—to “put equipment, systems and processes in place to ensure that the remaining oil and gas flowing can be recovered, taking into account safety, environmental and meteorological factors.”

The letter stressed the importance of redundancies to maintain collection rates in the event of operational problems, the need for multiple recovery vessels once additional capacity is needed, or severe weather, such as a hurricane.

Secretary Solis Visits Gulf Region to Inspect Efforts to Ensure Oil Spill Worker Safety
At the direction of the President, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis traveled to Louisiana to inspect efforts to ensure the health, safety and well-being of workers affected by the BP oil spill. She met with beach cleanup workers in Port Fourchon; discussed worker safety efforts with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) staff; and visited the Terrebonne Career Solutions Center, where she met with Vietnamese workers affected by the spill.

Policy Established to Protect Worker Health and Safety as Heat Rises in the Region
In an effort to protect the health and safety of workers amid rising summer temperatures, the Unified Area Command has established a policy requiring all on-shore and near-shore cleanup workers to follow a work/rest cycle to ensure their safety and well-being—which is determined based on the heat index, type of work being performed and required protective clothing. In addition, cleanup workers must be provided with plenty of water and encouraged to hydrate regularly. More information from OSHA is available here (pdf).

BP Continues to Capture Some Oil and Gas Using Containment Device
BP continues to capture some oil and burn some gas at the surface using its containment dome technique, which is being executed under the federal government’s direction. After cutting off a portion of the riser, BP placed a containment device over it in order to capture oil at its source.

Approved SBA Economic Injury Assistance Loans Surpass $2.1 Million
SBA has approved 51 economic injury assistance loans to date, totaling more than $2.19 million for small businesses in the Gulf Coast impacted by the BP oil spill. Additionally, the agency has granted deferments on 343 existing SBA disaster loans in the region, totaling more than $1.5 per month in payments. For information on assistance loans for affected businesses, visit the SBA’s Web site at www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance, call [phone] (800-877-8339 for the hearing impaired), or email [e-mail] .

By the Numbers to Date:

The administration has authorized 17,500 National Guard troops from Gulf Coast states to participate in the response to the BP oil spill.
More than 24,000 personnel are currently responding to protect the shoreline and wildlife and cleanup vital coastlines.
More than 4,500 vessels are responding on site, including skimmers, tugs, barges, and recovery vessels to assist in containment and cleanup efforts—in addition to dozens of aircraft, remotely operated vehicles, and multiple mobile offshore drilling units.
Approximately 2.17 million feet of containment boom and 2.6 million feet of sorbent boom have been deployed to contain the spill—and approximately 520,000 feet of containment boom and 2.3 million feet of sorbent boom are available.
Approximately 16 million gallons of an oil-water mix have been recovered.
Approximately 1.14 million gallons of total dispersant have been deployed—798,000 on the surface and 346,000 subsea. More than 500,000 gallons are available.
More than 145 controlled burns have been conducted, efficiently removing a total of more than 3.62 million gallons of oil from the open water in an effort to protect shoreline and wildlife.
17 staging areas are in place and ready to protect sensitive shorelines.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/06/09/ongoing-admin...

[Cant trust em]

47. The numbers are important.

There is a lot going on.

[flyarm]

49. no read this! BP'S BIG MESS/BP expected to declare bankruptcy soon

http://hinessight.com/

BP'S BIG MESS/BP expected to declare bankruptcy soon
BP'S BIG MESS
BP expected to declare bankruptcy soon
"I think the government should ask BP to leave the United States and turn its
operation over to the military. They have about a month before they declare Chapter 11."
>> BP's stock in free fall


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

as posted on DU ..thank you .....Robbien

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x541228

Jane Lubchenko, administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric: Administration

But rather than applying such skepticism to BP's math, the Obama administration has instead attacked scientists who released independent estimates of the spill. When one scientist funded by NOAA released a figure much higher than the government's estimate, he found himself being pressured to retract it by officials at the agency. "Are you sure you want to keep saying this?" they badgered him. Lubchenko, the head of NOAA, even denounced as "misleading" and "premature" reports that scientists aboard the research vessel Pelican had discovered a massive subsea oil plume. Speaking to PBS, she offered a bizarre denial of the obvious. "It's clear that there is something at depth," she said, "but we don't even know that it's oil yet." Scientists were stunned that NOAA, an agency widely respected for its scientific integrity, appeared to have been co-opted by the White House spin machine. "NOAA has actively pushed back on every fact that has ever come out," says one ocean scientist who works with the agency. "They're denying until the facts are so overwhelming, they finally come out and issue an admittance."


http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/201...

[fascisthunter]

55. thank you

with a government like this, we don't need foreign enemies

[Name removed]

59. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jeanpalmer]

40. Shortly after the Interior secretary

announced a reorganization of MMS in the wake of the Gulf disaster, Goll called a staff meeting and served cake decorated with the words "Drill, baby, drill."

LOL. Fkn classic. Wouldn't have expected less from a "reformed" bought off government.

[xchrom]

41. recommend

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lucian]

54. Great article. K&R

[mhatrw]

57. Better Excerpts

http://www.rollingstone.com/po...ws/17390/111965

Even after the president's press conference, Rolling Stone has learned, the administration knew the spill could be far worse than its "best estimate" acknowledged. That same day, the president's Flow Rate Technical Group – a team of scientists charged with establishing the gusher's output – announced a new estimate of 12,000 to 25,000 barrels, based on calculations from video of the plume. In fact, according to interviews with team members and scientists familiar with its work, that figure represents the plume group's minimum estimate. The upper range was not included in their report because scientists analyzing the flow were unable to reach a consensus on how bad it could be. "The upper bound from the plume group, if it had come out, is very high," says Timothy Crone, a marine geophysicist at Columbia University who has consulted with the government's team. "That's why they had resistance internally. We're talking 100,000 barrels a day." ...

Instead of seizing the reins, the Obama administration cast itself in a supporting role, insisting that BP was responsible for cleaning up the mess. "When you say the company is responsible and the government has oversight," a reporter asked Gibbs on May 3rd, "does that mean that the government is ultimately in charge of the cleanup?" Gibbs was blunt: "No," he insisted, "the responsible party is BP." In fact, the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan – the federal regulations that lay out the command-and-control responsibilities for cleaning up an oil spill – makes clear that an oil company like BP cannot be left in charge of such a serious disaster. The plan plainly states that the government must "direct all federal, state or private actions" to clean up a spill "where a discharge or threat of discharge poses a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States."

"The government is in a situation where it's required to be in charge," says William Funk, a professor of environmental and administrative law at Lewis and Clark College who previously worked as a staff attorney in the Justice Department. ...

That may help explain why the administration has gone to unusual lengths to contain the spill's political fallout. On May 14th, two days after the first video of the gusher was released, the government allowed BP to apply a toxic dispersant that is banned in England at the source of the leak – an unprecedented practice in the deep ocean. "The effort should be in recovering the oil, not making it more difficult to recover by dispersing it," says Sylvia Earle, a famed oceanographer and former NOAA chief scientist who helped the agency confront the world's worst-ever oil spill in the Persian Gulf after the first Iraq War. The chemical assault appeared geared, she says, "to improving the appearance of the problem rather than solving the problem."

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

76. The hard cold truth of it is that the government shirked it's obligation to take charge

if this sentence is true:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965

"In fact, the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan – the federal regulations that lay out the command-and-control responsibilities for cleaning up an oil spill – makes clear that an oil company like BP cannot be left in charge of such a serious disaster. The plan plainly states that the government must "direct all federal, state or private actions" to clean up a spill "where a discharge or threat of discharge poses a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States."
**********************************************************************************************************************************

That seems pretty cut and dried.

Now we find out that the damage is possibly much worse than anything previously presented and that offers of assistance and aid were turned away.

It's too bad that President Obama becomes the fall guy for many years of Republican negligence and deregulation, but the event happened on his watch - just like Katrina and 9/11 happened on Bush's. President Obama doesn't get a pass from anyone because he's a Democrat. I think the situation was further exascerbated by his choice of his DLC/ DINO advisors and cabinet choice Ken Salazar.

[O is 44]

63. Everyone can have an opinion, but it does not make it valid.

I wish people would think about the legal constraints before they spew their opinion of what should be done and what is not being done. I am confident this President would do as they suggest if he felt it was a good idea. It makes no logical sense to think the President wants to appear helpless in the face of a crisis. By the way I did not know the President had super powers to predict the oil rig would blow April 20th.

[mhatrw]

66. Leaders should LEAD. Governments should RESPOND to national disasters.

What about this don't you understand?

[flyarm]

67. Government Collusion with BP to Block Information Flow Means We Need an Independent Commission

Government Collusion with BP to Block Information Flow Means We Need an Independent Commission to Handle Spill Response


By: Jim White Thursday June 10, 2010 6:50 am
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/53862

Writing in Thursday’s New York Times, Jeremy W. Peters provides further documentation of what he titles "Efforts to Limit the Flow of Spill News". Perhaps the most damning evidence Peters provides comes from an effort by Florida Senator Bill Nelson to visit the Gulf with a group of reporters:

Last week, Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, tried to bring a small group of journalists with him on a trip he was taking through the gulf on a Coast Guard vessel. Mr. Nelson’s office said the Coast Guard agreed to accommodate the reporters and camera operators. But at about 10 p.m. on the evening before the trip, someone from the Department of Homeland Security’s legislative affairs office called the senator’s office to tell them that no journalists would be allowed.

“They said it was the Department of Homeland Security’s response-wide policy not to allow elected officials and media on the same ‘federal asset,’ ” said Bryan Gulley, a spokesman for the senator. “No further elaboration” was given, Mr. Gulley added.

Why would the Department of Homeland Security have a policy that prohibits elected officials and media being on the same ship in the Gulf? Is there any other explanation than a blatant attempt by the federal government to stifle reporting on conditions in the Gulf as they really exist, rather than as they have been presented by BP and federal "spokespeople"?



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
this is a senator in one of the states..My state that is involved in having our eco system destroyed..


why is BP controlling the media? who gives them that fucking right? oh yeah our leadership ..or lack there of..

Why is media as per CNN being forbidden from seeing the birds covered with oil? Why are those workers and volunteers cleaning up the birds forbidden to talk to the media by BP?

Who gives BP that right????????

Oh yeeah..over government leadership..or lack there of!

Why has BP and their lawyers lied and withheld the HD tapes/video from scientists until Markey fought them for these tapes??..

and breaking news..as per CNN and the scientists..20,000 to 40,000 baarrels per day have been estimated by the scientists that have now looked at the tapes..and that is before the Riser was cut ..those figures are from BEFORE June 3rd!!!

Bp estimated 20% more after the riser was cut..after June 3rd...how about those lowballing numbers!!!!!!!!

and where the fuck has our leadership in government been?????????????????

opinions???????????? you think these are opinions..well i wish i could have shared the god awful stinking air I had to breathe in my back yard..the Gulf of Mexico..that burned our eyes and throats and gave so many horrible headaches..god only knows what the fuck we were exposed to!..and our health!

[Bluebear]

68. 'spew their opinion'

:eyes:

[liberation]

75. Well, sure... Opinions can be wrong. But strawmen by definition are always wrong

LOL

[freddie mertz]

81. You are "spewing" your opinion yourself.

And your aim is not too impressive, if I may stick with your "sticky" little metaphor.

PS: No one thinks the president has super-powers.

(That is another stupid, useless line.)

But they expect leadership, and have a right to do so.

[Uncle Joe]

64. If they're not already sitting up front, I would suggest Rolling Stone

for Helen Thomas's old seat.

Thanks for the thread, Wandawilkerson.

[mhatrw]

65. How many fucking shills have troll rated this?

You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

[donco6]

88. All of them, no doubt.

It doesn't seem to be working as well as it used to, though.

[earth mom]

97. You mean how many shills have unrecced such a great thread with such important info.

You should be ashamed of yourself for caring more about politics than the planet! :puke:

[QC]

72. Rolling Stone never really loved him!

:cry:

[Bluebear]

92. Rolling Stone wanted President Palin!

:cry:

[earth mom]

96. Rolling Stone is bitter!

:cry:

[shellgame26]

74. I have to agree with the article

He should have declared this a national emergency long ago.

[BrklynLiberal]

82. Thank you for this post!!!

[defendandprotect]

86. Kicky for tomorrow --

[OnyxCollie]

87. Kick. nt

[old mark]

91. Kick. Wake up, President - you are the best many people have yet seen in office.

Try to remember what party elected you and try to act like a Democrat.


mark

[underpants]

93. I saw this earlier. will read later

thanks

[earth mom]

95. Thanks so much for posting. Rolling Stone tells it like it is and I love em for it.

My subscription just ran out so I missed this issue, so I'm off to read it now.

Huge K & R! :kick:

[mdmc]

98. ..